Thanks to a little-noticed auction sale, a South Bay couple are the proud owners of one of the most exclusive streets in San Francisco — and they’re looking for ways to make their purchase pay.

Tina Lam and Michael Cheng snatched up Presidio Terrace — the block-long, private oval street lined by 35 megamillion-dollar mansions — for $90,000 and change in a city-run auction stemming from an unpaid tax bill. They outlasted several other bidders.

Now they’re looking to cash in — maybe by charging the residents of those mansions to park on their own private street.

Those residents value their privacy — and their exclusivity. Past homeowners have included Sen. Dianne Feinstein and her financier husband, Richard Blum; House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi; and the late Mayor Joseph Alioto. A guard is stationed round the clock at the stone-gate entrance to the street to keep the curious away.

So imagine the residents’ surprise when San Jose residents Cheng and Lam wound up with the street, its sidewalks and every other bit of “common ground” in the private development that has been managed by the homeowners since at least 1905. That includes a string of well-coiffed garden islands, palm trees and other greenery that enhance the gated and guarded community at the end of Washington Street, just off Arguello Boulevard and down the hill from the Presidio.

“We just got lucky,”said Cheng, a real estate investor.

Of course, once said bazillionaires realized their paltry, neglected tax bill had suddenly become someone else’s taxable property, it was TWO. YEARS. LATER.

Nothing like being on-the-ball.

So they’re suing. Of course. The city to vacate the sale, the kids to stop them from reselling to another buyer (it might “complicate” them getting the tax case dismissed), etc. ad nauseum.

Do you think for two seconds you could sue one of them TWO YEARS LATER if they bought your property because of an unsatisfied tax lien? Oh, HAY-YULL no. You’d be laughed out of court, if they even let you file.

…That makes the Luna Settlement, known as Santa Maria de Ochuse, larger than St. Augustine when it was first established in 1565; and it was bigger than Santa Elena when it was initially established in 1566 on the coast of South Carolina.

“That’s because Luna brought 1500 colonist, whereas St. Augustine and Santa Elena had something on the order of 300-600 settlers(at first),” said Worth in reference to the initial size of those colonies.

“So, we had the largest settlement at the time. Therefore, we have the largest archaeological site of the 16th Century Spanish Colonial era here, which really puts it on the map.”…

The American Cemetery above Utah Beach, photo taken when we were there in January 2015. It’s American Territory and our boys are all buried facing America. And I’m not ashamed to say I’m sobbing while typing this; it is an amazingly moving place.

Barrancas National Cemetery is a stunning place in its own right. But on a day like yesterday, with brooding clouds in the background and the light playing through the oaks and then being snuffed out by the building showers, it has a magic and poignancy second to none. Adjacent to our Daddy is the Civil War and Spanish American War section (yes, Barrancas is that old) and today we found sailors from ironclads buried there. Then we stopped by to visit Daddy, Uncle Nat and Aunt Dolly, leave them all some fresh flowers and, all the while, think of our precious, sweet John Perry.

…from the Rachel Dolezal school of cultural appropriation and intimidation.

I’m just glad the Charlotte police had the sense to get ALL this out STAT, before the CIS white supremacists had their houses and business attacked again by the outraged non-Dolezal/Sean King race reenactors, because Trump/white privilege. WHEW! Hopefully dodged a non-lethal crowd control projectile of the racially charged type.

THEN ON MON… THE FORECAST BECOMES QUITE COMPLEX AND VERY
CHALLENGING OVER THE ERN PORTION OF THE COUNTRY. THE SHORT WAVE
DIVING THROUGH THE MIDWEST ON SUN PROCEEDS TOWARD THE SOUTHEAST ON
MON AND BEGINS TO INDUCE A SURFACE LOW NEAR THE COASTAL CAROLINAS
BEFORE SHOWING SIGNS OF INTENSIFYING AND LIFTING NORTHWARD. THIS
IS DUE TO A SLIGHT NEG TILT ALOFT OF THIS FEATURE AND THE NEXT
POLAR/ARCTIC UPPER TROUGH PLUNGING INTO THE UPPER MS VALLEY/GREAT
LAKES. DO THE TWO SYSTEMS REMAIN COMPLETELY SEPARATE OR IS THERE
ENOUGH PARTIAL PHASING OCCURRING. EITHER WAY… ONE OF THE RARE
COASTAL STORMS THIS WINTER COULD VERY WELL IMPACT PARTS OF THE
MID-ATL REGION MON AFTN/EVENING INTO TUES MORNING.

THE 00Z ECMWF AND GFS APPEAR TO BE CONVERGING ON COASTAL
CYCLOGENESIS FROM THE CAROLINA COAST TO THE DELMARVA COAST… AS
THE UPPER DYNAMICS CROSS THE APPALACHIANS AND MESHES WITH THE
WOUND UP SURFACE SYSTEM ALONG THE COAST. THE RESULTANT SHOULD BE A
BURST AND FLOURISH IN PRECIPITATION AND GIVEN THE ANOMALOUS COLD
AIR MASS ENTRENCHED OVER THE EAST… IT APPEARS A RATHER
SIGNIFICANT LATE WINTER/EARLY SPRING HEAVY WET SNOW EVENT. NOW
EVEN THOUGH THE TWO LEADING GLOBAL MODELS HAVE COME TO SOME SORT
OF CONSENSUS… THIS REMAINS A HIGHLY FLUID FORECAST GIVEN
MULTIPLE STREAMS IN PLAY. THUS WPC QPF AND WINTER WEATHER
FORECASTERS WENT EXTREMELY CONSERVATIVE TO INTRODUCE INITIAL HEAVY
SNOWFALL AMOUNTS BUT NOT AS EXTREME AS SOME OPERATIONAL SOLUTIONS.
AT THIS MOMENT THROUGH 12Z TUES… WPC WENT WITH THE GREATEST
THREAT FOR SIGNIFICANT ACCUMULATIONS FROM SWRN VA TO ERN PA AND ON
THE ERN EXTENT TO INCLUDE THE CORRIDOR OF DC UP TO BWI AND JUST
SHY OF PHL… THOUGH THE REST OF THE NORTHEAST WILL GET MORE
INVOLVED ON TUES. THUS PTYPE ISSUES COULD BE A MAJOR ISSUE… WITH
QUESTIONS ON ATLANTIC ONSHORE FLOW AND SURFACE LOW TRACK. THE
BOTTOM LINE IS THE GUIDANCE IS COMING TO A CONSENSUS ON A MAJOR
STORM SYSTEM BUT IN QUESTION ARE THE CRITICAL DETAILS AND THIS MAY
BE AN ONGOING PROBLEM LEADING RIGHT UP TO THE EVENT.

Our Dad died earlier this evening after a long wasting illness that took a much more severe turn over the past oh six or so months and then really accelerated in the last month as, well, as these things just do. It’s something that of course happens to everyone but it just doesn’t seem like some shared universal human event when it’s your father, does it? The emotions, the memories, the laughs, the tears, the regrets; they all come crashing ashore like the waves in a chaotic storm.

Several of us had planned to go down and visit him this weekend, but we got THE CALL early last week so we hastily rearranged flights and met for one last visit, and I’m so glad we did. Yes, his body had wasted away to but a drawn haggard husk of the mighty bear of a man he once was, at nearly 6’6″ tall and easily weighing 260 in his prime. He knew it was the last time we’d be together, and he drew on what reserves of strength he had managed to sequester away to be, well, himself. Yes, he was weak and so so sick but by god he was sharp as a tack and funny. He was always fond of puns and wordplays, and he brought his “A” game to the surface one last time with us (and honestly I hadn’t heard him in such form in years); we should have hopped in the bed because he had us in stitches. They say a bulb always burns brightest right before it burns out, and last Thursday he was radiant.

So I’m very blessed that my last memory of him was him being him, and I will always treasure that final gift.

A piece of fabric described as the Holy Grail of fashion history will become one of the star attractions at Hampton Court Palace after it was identified as the only surviving piece of clothing worn by Elizabeth I.

The country’s leading experts on royal garments have spent the past year piecing together clues about the provenance of the beautifully embroidered textile, which had been cut up and used for hundreds of years as an altar cloth in a Herefordshire parish church.